Notice of Lis Pendens

[Heir1]

While negotiating a lease with a company in Green District, Wetzel County, WV, for Oil and Gas mineral rights that I inherited from my grandmother, I uncovered a “Notice of Lis Pendens” filed by another exploration company in 2016 against several defendants including my grandmother and her heirs, for Oil & Gas mineral rights in Proctor District, Wetzel County. She was believed to own 6.25% of the mineral rights under a combined tract of roughly 100 acres.

I also found an Oil and Gas “Memorandum of Lease” dated 2016 between a Special commissioner for and on behalf of several parties including my grandmother and her heirs, and the exploration company, for the mineral rights under the 100 acre tract in Proctor.

The “Notice of Lis Pendens” was filed with the Wetzel County circuit court in 2015 and subsequently dismissed in 2016. The Memorandum of Lease that was signed between the exploration company and the Special commissioner binding the heirs of my grandmother was signed the same exact day that the Notice was dismissed. Unfortunately the exploration company apparently went bankrupt soon after.

Subsequent to this finding, I located two “Memorandum of Lease’s” for the Oil & Gas mineral rights that were filed in Wetzel County for the same 100 acre tract in 2018. Both were signed by descendants of people named in both the Notice of Lis Pendens and the Memorandum of Lease.

I and my cousins have never been contacted by the second exploration company that signed the 2018 leases. Should I contact the exploration company directly and ask why we were never contacted or go through a lawyer? Would the Special commissioner have signed a lease if my grandmother’s 6.25% ownership was in question?

[tim_dowd]

Typically, a Special Commissioner is appointed in WV when an oil company petitions the court for an appointment of a Special Commissioner because they cannot locate the owner or her heirs. In this matter, the oil company, most likely, asserted they could find your grandmother, or they couldn’t determine her heirs. You’ve asked two questions. I will answer the second one first. Would the Special Commissioner have signed a lease if my grandmother’s 6.25% ownership was in question. Yes, they would have. Most likely, they signed the lease on behalf of your grandmother and other missing or unlocatable heirs.

The first question is should I contact the exploration company directly and ask why we were never contacted or go through a lawyer. My answer is, is this important to you. If the explortion company went bankrupt, who would you ask. If this is important to you, you should consult an attorney rather than the party who said they couldn’t find your grandmother.